adventures in family, faith, and Down syndrome

Dear Theresa

by Maggie on October 16, 2016

Dear Theresa,

As a NICU nurse, I bet you meet a lot of families like us. Your primary job is to treat the patient, I know, but I bet you help a lot with the whole family’s emotional healing, too. You did with us, that’s for sure.

The very hardest part of Tessa’s NICU stay, truthfully, was my complete incapacity to do well for both my children. The feeling of being so desperately torn – to need to be home with the big one, who wanted to get ready for Christmas and go sledding and see the lights and do all of the holiday traditions, while also being emotionally incapable of leaving the new little baby’s side, was absolutely enough to push me to the edge.

We had a lot of support of course, but your presence is one that helped me stayed glued together more than most. I don’t know that we even talked about Down syndrome during that week. We must have, but it doesn’t stick out in my brain. What I do remember is talking about mom stuff. You shared stories of your kids. I told you all about my crazy Ellie. We laughed. Oh goodness did we laugh! We actually got in some trouble for laughing too much and disturbing the peace of that quiet little ward.

It was so good to laugh.

As we got to the end of a full week, you helped us to convince the doctors to let us bring her home for Christmas. You talked to me about how she was ready, because nothing that was happening in the NICU couldn’t be done at home. And you were right. You even switched your shifts around to work on Christmas Eve so that you would be there to see us off. And even though I was so scared to take her home, away from the watchful eye of you and everyone else, I felt like I could because you convinced me that I am enough.

Thank you so much for going above and beyond in your care of our little girl… and of me. It made a bigger impact that you can ever know.

Most gratefully,

Tessa’s Mom

This is part of the 31 for 21 Blog Challenge – blogging every day for the the 31 days of Down Syndrome Awareness month. To find out more about the challenge, and to see other blogs participating, click here.

This year’s theme has been inspired by the Down Syndrome Diagnosis Network’s #deardoctor campaign. To see more #deardoctor letters, visit their Facebook page here.